Round One

The Rising Star. He only just qualifies, he's older than I would like, but he's played less than 50 games and it is only his 2nd season, so he's definitely a 'young' player.

Jake King, Jake did not do things the easy way. He was not selected in his draft year and went back to his local suburban league. After 2 years of dominating there despite being short and as skinny as a matchstick with the wood scraped off, his own family, who had a lot of pull with the team, told him that if he didn't give AFL another shot they wouldn't select him.

Jake stepped up a level and went to VFL team Box Hill, who were affiliated with Hawthorn. He played for a season there and impressed their coach Andy Collins enough that when Collins moved across to Coburg he asked King to join him. He had a good season for Coburg and was put on Richmond's rookie list. Injuries allowed King to play most of the 2007 season in the seniors, he made his debut against the Western Bulldogs. He refused to take a step backwards and it didn't matter how big his opponent was or how large the reputation King had no issues with getting in the other man's face. He continued to impress Tiger supporters with his attitude, pace and clever play. He won the Grand Final sprint on Grand Final day, being the 2nd Tiger to do so in 3 years, and then backed it up by winning the handball competition on Channel 9's Sunday Footy Show the following day.

All of this got Jake elevated to the senior side as a listed player and whilst there wasn't a lot of news about Richmond in the pre season something King did on a pre season fitness camp did make the news. He completed 309 consecutive pushups and then did 46 complete consecutive chin ups. Have a good look at Jake and tell me that's not impressive.

The opening game against Carlton didn't start well for King, he fluffed a kick and it floated out of bounds, he was dragged to the bench for a chat to the coach. He came back on the ground and set about rectifying things. He was under every pack getting the ball, he laid tackles, chased, harassed, drove the ball out of defence, featuring in a beautiful run and kick to a leading forward that resulted in a goal. He sparked the Tigers when Carlton built up a lead, he was the first on the scene to fly the flag when Haslett flattened Howat in a off the ball incident. The commentators took to calling him the Energizer Bunny such was his enthusiasm and obvious fitness, the fact that he never gives up and keeps going after the ball and his opponent didn't hurt either. Robbie Walls awarded him man of the match at the end of the game and it was well deserved. He's a worthy winner of my first Rising Star nomination and I have a sneaking suspicion it won't be the only one for the season either.

Next round...